Gardening tips for June: keep ahead of the weeds

Just as the winter is spent preparing for garden action, so the summer is spent trying to keep up with it. This is the golden age for weeds: balmy evenings spent quietly hoeing will reward your endeavour. Root out populations of weeds in hedge bottoms and shady corners before they can run to seed, otherwise you will face a much stiffer challenge in the coming years. It pays to know your enemy, so a gradual process of getting to know the various weeds and their lifecycles, habits and habitats will be rewarded by an understanding of how to control them, for now at least.